As a doctor who supports patients in Burton and across Staffordshire, Dr Ben Sinclair is aware that Covid and Long Covid continue to be big areas of concern among the local community.
He has suffered from both and has made a full recovery but the debilitating symptoms he endured because of the virus remain a vivid memory.
Local media, the Burton Mail and Staffordshire Live online, chose to highlight Dr Ben’s recent illnesses in a report which also highlighted how he used his experience to help others.
Undaunted, he used his knowledge and specialist expertise in treating the virus as a platform to pioneer the launch of what is thought to be Britain’s first-ever dedicated online clinic for Long Covid sufferers.
Dr Sinclair and his team at Dr Finlay’s Private Practice won a top award at the Phoenix Club Awards, one of the West Midlands’ most prestigious business events.
The practice was named ‘Business of the Year and a judge praised his team for delivering an “exemplary and outstanding” service.
Dr Sinclair named his business after the fictional Scottish GP Dr Alan Finlay, from the long-running BBC TV drama ‘Dr Finlay’s Casebook’.
Set in the imaginary lowland lochside village of Tannochbrae, the famous series, which ran for nine years in the Sixties until 1971, starred veteran actor Bill Simpson in the title role.
Dr Sinclair also works part-time as a prison doctor, and it was while he was treating inmates that, despite wearing full Personal Protective Equipment, he contracted Covid-19.
‘Many patients across the Midlands benefit from his empathy’
He said: “Dr Finlay worked hard to become a trusted, dependable and friendly family doctor whose home-visiting service and sympathetic bedside manner were much valued by the community. We share those same values so our practice is named after him and is a tribute to him, 50 years on.
“Our service is based on the good, old-fashioned GP/patient relationship like the original Dr Finlay’s home visits, but also combined with today’s cutting-edge technology that we can bring into anyone’s home to help diagnose and treat them.”
An estimated 2 million people in the UK now suffer from Long Covid. Regrettably, numbers are rising; however, many patients across the Midlands region benefit from the empathy, experience and expertise that Dr Ben, having suffered from the virus himself, is able to show them.
“A lot of my Long Covid patients now say to me they went to their doctors and were not taken seriously. They were told that they were “anxious”, that they were “tired”, or “stressed”, that they should “take it easy” or “go for a run and blow away the cobwebs”. But actually, this diagnosis of Long Covid was being missed.
“Sadly, some people were not recognising Long Covid. Some employers, doctors, consultants and even family members don’t believe it exists, which can be incredibly distressing for the patient suffering from it.
“Because I have had it myself, I understand how frustrating that is and my patients tell me they feel reassured that I understand how they are feeling.”
